You can read 19 more articles this month

CIVIL SERVANTS have lost £1.7 billion in pay since the Tories came to power, their union PCS revealed today.

Staff working for government departments in offices across Britain are calling on new Cabinet Office Minister David Lidington to make up for it now with a 5 per cent pay rise.

A PCS analysis of official figures showed that a civil servant on the average salary of £25,000 has lost £4,400 in real terms since 2010. This was then multiplied by 381,150, the total full-time equivalent number of civil servants.

“This is money that should have been in members’ purses and wallets. It would have helped the local and national economy as members would have spent this on goods and services.”

The union has formally submitted a pay claim for a 5 per cent rise, with a minimum increase of £1,200. Mr Serwotka said this would partially compensate for real-terms losses suffered due to the public-sector pay cap that has limited annual rises to a maximum of 1 per cent since 2010.

Union members will demonstrate outside numerous public sector workplaces, including the Tower of London, tomorrow.

PCS said it would target offices with some of the biggest pay losses. These include HMRC headquarters in Birmingham, where it said £7 million had been lost.

Other targets include the DVLA Swansea office, where workers are £12 million worse off, and the Office for National Statistics in Newport, where workers have reportedly lost £14 million in real terms.